I-95 reopens after road-melting fatal tanker wreck

Wednesday

Dec 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 25, 2013 at 1:34 PM

Interstate 95 was shut down in Flagler County early Tuesday morning following a fatal accident, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.The accident occurred at 4:27 a.m. north of Palm Coast Parkway, affecting traffic in both directions.

JULIE MURPHY and ANTHONY DeFEOjulie.murphy@news-jrnl.com

A trucker pulling a fuel tanker was killed Tuesday morning when the tanker clipped another semi on Interstate 95, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.I-95 was shut down in Flagler County after the 4:27 a.m. wreck north of Palm Coast Parkway. The northbound lanes reopened around 5:30 p.m., after work crews repaired a section of melted roadway.Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle, among the first to arrive at the scene, said the fuel tanker overturned and became an inferno. “The only way we even knew it was a tanker is because we found some of the paperwork a good distance away from the crash,” he said. “We were worried about the hazardous material, so we had St. Johns (County Sheriff's Office) HAZMAT crew for backup.” The fire from the tanker at first made it difficult for troopers to identify the truck or its driver because the vehicle identification number was burned, said FHP Sgt. Dylan Bryan.“It was like a candle melted on the roadway,” Bryan said.The driver was later identified Tuesday as Christopher Mceuen, 41, from Jacksonville. The tanker was employed by Florida Rock and Tank Lines, Inc.FHP has already been fielding calls from the loved ones of tanker drivers who haven't heard from their truckers today. “It's very sad,” Bryan said. Investigators are still trying to determine how fast the tanker was traveling, if it was carrying a full load, and if that load was gasoline or diesel. Some trucks have computers similar to the “black boxes” on airplanes, Bryan said, which may provide more details. “All we know right now is that he (the tanker driver) was traveling faster (than the other trucker),” Bryan said. Both trucks were heading north when the tanker came up behind the other semi, driven by St. Clair Agenord, 33, of Winter Haven. As the tanker was trying to pass Agenord's truck, the driver clipped the back of his trailer, Bryan said.“It was a hard steer,” the sergeant said. “It (tanker) overturned after it hit the back of that semi while making an evasive maneuver.”Agenord, who was uninjured, was arrested at the scene on a warrant for failure to pay child support, Bryan said. While southbound lanes reopened about 9 a.m. Tuesday, northbound traffic lanes north of Palm Coast Parkway remained closed into the afternoon, reopening around 5:30 p.m. Northbound traffic was being re-routed at State Road 100 west to U.S. 1, Bryan said. Motorists had to pick up I-95 north from U.S. 1 in St. Johns County. Flagler County sheriff's deputies assisted the FHP in detour areas.“They are reporting that traffic is bumper-to-bumper on State Road 100 west,” sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. Bob Weber said at one point Tuesday morning. “Traffic on U.S. 1 traveling north is slow, but the southbound lanes are clear.”Because of the detour, I-95 northbound traffic was backed up by as much as six miles Tuesday afternoon. FHP had assigned a trooper to the intersection of State Road 100 and U.S. 1 to control the traffic signal at that location and keep traffic moving. The city of Palm Coast re-timed traffic lights along State Road 100 from the I-95 interchange to Belle Terre Parkway in order to ease traffic congestion, he said.